The Typography of My ActionScript

ColorCodeCroppedEveryone codes differently and has their own way that they like to program, myself included. So, I thought I would take a second to share the typography choices I made for coding ActionScript and why.

I work on a 30″ HD monitor [ED note: freaking sweet, thanks boss!], so it is very important for me to take measures to protect my eyes. One thing that helps is making my coding environment much more high contrast and easy to stare at for hours at a time. I got the idea from an article by “the Hamstu” entitled “The Typography of Code,” which I recommend as a fun place to start.

Here’s the basic rundown for me. Dark background, high contrast colors, Consolas Regular 10 point font. I chose Consolas after trying many, many others, including the ones listed in the article I mentioned.  You name a coding font, I have tried it. Consolas looks great at any size and is highly readable.

Windows users may already have it if they have installed Office 2007. If not, you can still grab the font, and some other beautiful new typefaces by installing the Microsoft Powerpoint Viewer 2007.

Mac users can get the new font set from the Open Office XML Converter apparently. I work on a PC (I know, I know) so I have no way of testing it. If it doesn’t work, I have a few other alternatives, though admittedly, they’re a little more involved.

As far as color choices, I’ve included the color swatches .clr file, a text file with the Hex values, and CS3 fla so you can grab the colors and start using them right away if you like.

And just so you know, there is a Flex Formatter Eclipse Plugin, and you can always just modify your ‘Colors and Fonts’ /’Syntax Coloring’ in Flex/Flash Builder.

Happy coding!

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30

06 2009


Category: ActionScript
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  • http://www.twitter.com/explrcre8 samBrown

    diggin the post Kevin, always interested in hearing about other people’s set-ups. I always seem to settle into a various color schemes for months at a time.

  • http://www.twitter.com/explrcre8 samBrown

    diggin the post Kevin, always interested in hearing about other people’s set-ups. I always seem to settle into a various color schemes for months at a time.

  • http://kevinsuttle.com/ Kevin Suttle

    Thanks for reading Sam. I’d be interested in seeing any other setups you’ve seen.

  • Kevin

    Thanks for reading Sam. I’d be interested in seeing any other setups you’ve seen.

  • http://www.swfgeek.net/2009/07/01/links-for-2009-07-01/ Links for 2009-07-01 at .swfgeek

    [...] The Typography of My ActionScript | Commented Out Everyone codes differently and has their own way that they like to program, myself included. So, I thought I would take a second to share the typography choices I made for coding ActionScript and why. (tags: flash actionscript3 code flex) The Links for 2009-07-01 by David Gamez, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Mexico License. Bookmark to: [...]

  • http://www.fabianvercuiel.com/ Fabianv

    Sweet! I think i’m gonna give this a try – thanks for sharing

  • http://www.fabianvercuiel.com Fabianv

    Sweet! I think i’m gonna give this a try – thanks for sharing

  • http://blog.savvasmalamas.com/ Savvas Malamas

    I really love the Inconsolata Medium at a size of 14 for Flash Builder.
    I used to let all the other settings (colors etc) by default cause I would love to be consistent with other setups when I have to look at code on other machines. Changing even the font tho doesnt help that much on this. I’ve tried again changing the background to something darker but I couldnt stand it. Lets see for one more time.. :)

  • http://blog.savvasmalamas.com Savvas Malamas

    I really love the Inconsolata Medium at a size of 14 for Flash Builder.
    I used to let all the other settings (colors etc) by default cause I would love to be consistent with other setups when I have to look at code on other machines. Changing even the font tho doesnt help that much on this. I’ve tried again changing the background to something darker but I couldnt stand it. Lets see for one more time.. :)

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